PLANCKE030 - Planck Early Release 30-GHz Compact Source Catalog

Planck is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission with significant
contributions from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). It
is the third generation of space-based cosmic microwave background (CMB)
experiments, after the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) and the Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). Planck was launched on 14 May 2009 on an
Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Following a cruise to the
Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point, cooling and in-orbit checkout, Planck initiated
the First Light Survey on 13 August 2009. Since then, Planck has been
continuously measuring the intensity of the sky over a range of frequencies
from 30 to 857 GHz (wavelengths of 1 cm to 350 microns) with spatial
resolutions ranging from about 33 to 4.2 arcminutes, respectively. The Low
Frequency Instrument (LFI) on Planck provides temperature and polarization
information using radiometers which operate between 30 and 70 GHz. The High
Frequency Instrument (HFI) uses pairs of polarization-sensitive bolometers at
each of four frequencies between 100 and 353 GHz but does not measure
polarization information in the two upper HFI bands at 545 and 857 GHz. The
lowest frequencies overlap with the frequencies of WMAP, and the highest
frequencies extend far into the submillimeter in order to improve separation
between Galactic foregrounds and the CMB. By extending to wavelengths longer
than those at which the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) operated,
Planck is providing an unprecedented window into dust emission at
far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths.

The Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) is a list of all
high reliability sources, both Galactic and extragalactic, derived from the
first sky coverage. The data that went into this early release comprise all
observations undertaken between 13 August 2009 and 6 June 2010, corresponding
to Planck operational days 91-389. Since the Planck scan strategy results in
the entire sky being observed every 6 months, the data considered in this
release correspond to more than the first sky coverage. The source lists have
reliability goals of > 90% across the entire sky and > 95% at high Galactic
latitude. The goals on photometric accuracy are 30% while the positional
accuracy goal translates to a positional root mean square (RMS) uncertainty
that is less than 1/5 of the beam full width at half maximum (FWHM).

A brief description of the methodology of the construction, contents and usage
of the Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) is provided in
the reference paper. The catalog is based on data that consist of mapping the
entire sky once and 60% of the sky a second time by Planck, thereby comprising
the first high sensitivity radio/submillimetre observations of the entire sky.
Four source detection algorithms were run as part of the ERCSC pipeline. A
Monte-Carlo algorithm based on the injection and extraction of artificial
sources into the Planck maps was implemented to select reliable sources among
all extracted candidates such that the cumulative reliability of the catalogue
is >~ 90%. There is no requirement on completeness for the ERCSC. As a result
of the Monte-Carlo assessment of reliability of sources from the different
techniques, an implementation of the PowellSnakes source extraction technique
was used at the five frequencies between 30 and 143 GHz while the SExtractor
technique was used between 217 and 857 GHz. The 10-sigma photometric flux
density limit of the catalogue at |b| > 30 degrees is 0.49, 1.0, 0.67, 0.5,
0.33, 0.28, 0.25, 0.47 and 0.82 Jy at each of the nine frequencies between 30
and 857 GHz. Sources which are up to a factor of ~2 fainter than this limit,
and which are present in "clean" regions of the Galaxy where the sky background
due to emission from the interstellar medium is low, are included in the ERCSC
if they meet the high reliability criterion. The Planck ERCSC sources have
known associations with stars with dust shells, stellar cores, radio galaxies,
blazars, infrared luminous galaxies and Galactic interstellar medium features.
A significant fraction of unclassified sources are also present in the
catalogs. The entire source list, with more than 15,000 unique sources, is ripe
for follow-up characterisation with Herschel, ATCA, VLA, SOFIA, ALMA and other
ground-based observing facilities.

This present table contains the ERCSC 30-GHz source catalog. The parameter
names as defined in the FITS files containing the source lists which were
created by the Planck Project are given in parentheses and in capital letters
at the end of the corresponding parameter descriptions below.

Error_Radius
The 1-sigma (standard deviation) of the positional offsets for
sources with this signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), in
arcminutes. (POS_ERR).

RA
The Right Ascension of the source based on the extraction algorithm in
the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 decimal degree coordinates
to a precision of 10-4 degrees in the original table.

Dec
The Declination of the source based on the extraction algorithm in
the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 decimal degree coordinates
to a precision of 10-4 degrees in the original table.

Beam_Position_Angle
The orientation of the elliptical Gaussian beam major
axis, measured Eastwards of Galactic North, in degrees (BEAM_THETA).

Det_Flux
The flux density of the source as determined by the detection
method, in milliJanskies (mJy). (FLUXDET).

Det_Flux_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the flux density of the source
as determined by the detection method, in mJy. (FLUXDET_ERR).

First_Moment_In_X
The first moment in the X direction, in arcminutes, for the radio source
(MX1). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local
gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and
iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

First_Moment_In_Y
The first moment in the Y direction, in arcminutes, for the radio source
(MY1). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local
gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and
iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

Second_Moment_In_X
The second moment in the X direction, in arcminutes2, for the radio source
(MX2). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local
gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and
iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

Cross_Moment_In_X_And_Y
The cross moment in the X and Y directions, in arcminutes2, for the radio
source (MXY). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined
within local gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X
and iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

Second_Moment_In_Y
The second moment in the Y direction, in arcminutes2, for the radio source
(MY2). The X and Y axes used in the moment analysis are defined within local
gnomonic projections around each source (iso-latitudes along X and
iso-longitudes along Y axes, respectively).

PSF_Flux
The flux density of the source as determined from PSF fitting,
in mJy. (PSFFLUX).

PSF_Flux_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the flux density of the source
as determined from PSF fitting, in mJy. (PSFFLUX_ERR).

Gauss_Flux
The flux density of the source as determined from 2D Gaussian
fitting, in mJy. (GAUFLUX).

Gauss_Flux_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the flux density of the source
as determined from 2D Gaussian fitting, in mJy. (GAUFLUX_ERR).

Gauss_Major_Axis
The Gaussian fit FWHM to the radio source along the major
axis, in arcminutes. (GAU_FWHMMAX).

Gauss_Minor_Axis
The Gaussian fit FWHM to the radio source along the minor
axis, in arcminutes. (GAU_FWHMMIN).

Gauss_Position_Angle
The orientation of the Gaussian fit FWHM major
axis, measured Eastwards of Galactic North, in degrees (GAU_THETA).

Reliability
The reliability of the source detection, defined as the
fraction of Monte-Carlo (MC) sources that are matched and have photometric
errors < 30%. (RELIABILITY).

Reliability_Error
The 1-sigma uncertainty in the reliability of the source
based on Poisson statistics. (RELIABILITY_ERR).

MCQA_Flux_Sigma
The standard deviation of photometric error for sources
with the same SNR as this source, based on the Monte Carlo quality
assessment (MCQA). (MCQA_FLUX_ERR).

MCQA_Flux_Bias
The median photometric error for sources with the same SNR
as this source, based on the Monte Carlo quality
assessment (MCQA). (MCQA_FLUX_BIAS).

Background_RMS
The background point source RMS obtained from the threshold
maps, in mJy, (BACKGROUND_RMS).

Observation_Dates
The UTC dates on which the source was observed, in
YYYYMMDD format. (DATESOBS).